A sign that will be Contradicted

 Peace, Blessings, and the Joy of the Lord be to all!

In reading and contemplating this week's Gospel reading, I find myself drawn to Simeon's prophecy that Jesus is "destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted." It's an unexpected comment regarding The Messiah, don't you think? The Prince of Peace - God-with-us - Wonderful- Counselor. The Savior of the World. Yet Simeon says the He will be cause of the rise and fall of many. He will be a sign that will be contradicted. 

Perhaps it is not surprising that Jesus would be contradicted; any call to change is usually met with resistance. And Jesus called everyone to change. Break from sin and follow the Lord. It's the "Go and sin no more" part that we tend to have a problem with. We want to believe that we have license to be the way we want to be and to do the things that please us, because we find them to be "good."

How often we need to be reminded that the Lord's ways are not our ways.

As we move into the new year, I pray that we all pause long enough to recognize the ways in which our own hearts may contradict the Lord. The ways that we are called to change, and perhaps refuse to hear it......

Peace,

                    + Theophilus

 

 San Francisco es el culpable

 

En un reciente escrito, en una meditación como las que escribe a diario el sacerdote franciscano, Richard Rohr, nos recuerda que durante los primeros 12 siglos de la cristiandad, no se celebró la Navidad tal como la conocemos hoy día.

 

Afirma el padre Richard que fue San Francisco, el santo fundador de la orden a la cual él pertenece, quien en el 1300 cayó en cuenta que no se tenía que esperar hasta la Pascua de la Resurrección para celebrar y dar gracias a Dios por el gran regalo de nuestra redención.

 

San Francisco creía que todo el amor de Dios, todo el misterio de la redención del género humano ya se nos había dado mediante el misterio de la Encarnación; Dios que se hace humano en el seno de la santísima virgen María.

 

Ese gran acontecimiento, el acontecimiento más grande en la historia de la humanidad, había que celebrarlo en grande, y ahí comenzó la celebración que nosotros conocemos como la Navidad, la conmemoración de la venida del niño Jesús, del niño Dios , al mundo.

 

Fue San Francisco el que construyó el Aprimer nacimiento, pesebre, Belén o cómo le llamemos en nuestros diferentes países . Frequentemente San Francisco usaba animales vivos para construir la escena para que los habitantes Assisi y de las aldeas cercanas llegarán a visitar y adorar al Niño.

Y nosotros continuamos esa tradición y la construcción del nacimiento, de la escena que nos recuerda el lugar y las circunstancias donde nació Jesús , es tradicional en nuestros hogares, en nuestras iglesias y nuestros pueblos.

 

La temporada navideña es algo muy especial para nosotros, la gente que habla español. En todos los países se celebra una novena de preparación para la Nochebuena y la Navidad. En México y en Centroamérica esta consiste de las Posadas. Tradición que ha sido adoptada por casi todas las diócesis de los Estados Unidos donde hay gente que habla español.

 

Para nosotros, la Navidad es una temporada, una época litúrgica. No termina el 25 de diciembre como la Navidad del comercio en los Estados Unidos.  La temporada navideña continúa después del día 25.  Se celebra la fiesta de los santos Reyes y la octava de la fiesta de los Reyes.

 

En los Estados Unidos hay un dicho para recordarnos el verdadero sentido de la Navidad, “ Jesus is the reason for the season”.  ¡ Jesús sea la razón de tu celebración! Que él sea el centro de tu vida, que nazca en tu corazón todos los días.

 

¡ Feliz Navidad para ti y tu familia, 1000 bendiciones para ustedes en el nuevo año!

 

El Caballero de Nuestra Señora

 

Testify to the Light

We are called to testify to the light. The world tells us we should be the light.  The world tells us we should shine.  And so we look for many ways to shine.  We want to be the employee of the month at work.  We want to have a bookcase full of trophies and a wall full of award certificates.  We want to have lists of accomplishments to brag about.  This starts from our earliest days of school and continues throughout adolescence and our teen years.  We want the best prom photos and then then the most elaborate weddings and then start the cycle all over again, raising our children to shine.  And so we have a society built not on the common good, but rather of multitudes of persons with their own agendas in order to look good, in order to be the light. So we wind up with a vast array of individual lights and we all are blinded.  It is like driving down a nighttime highway with traffic coming at you with high beams.

This Sunday’s Gospel reminds us that there is one true light.  Many were under the impression that John the Baptist was that light. The Jewish Leaders questioned him, especially about the Baptizing that he was doing.   They wanted to know who he was.  He was captivating.  They knew his prominence.  They knew his popularity.  He could have seized the opportunity and let his light shine for himself.  He could have made it all about him.  Yet he knew who he was.  He knew he was not the light, but that he was meant to testify to the light, to the savior Jesus Christ.

John knew his place.  He knew his role.  He said he was not worthy to stoop and untie the sandal straps of the one who would emerge, Jesus.  Perhaps so often we forget our roles in the divine story.  We often look at religion as a system of beliefs that we can buy into and put on so we can shine.  And that’s what we do.  We allow our ministries, our vocations, our services to be opportunities to shine.  Christianity is not meant to be a system of beliefs that we can embrace merely to inflate ourselves.  Christianity calls us into a relationship with a person - not any person, but the divine person, the very Word of God become flesh.  The one whom we are invited into relationship with is indeed the very light of the world.  Being in relationship with him is not a private matter.  It includes a call to bring others into that relationship.  This is what John understood.

John leaped in his mother’s womb upon encountering Jesus in his mother’s womb. John knew who Jesus was. Years later, when it was time, he would again be excited to encounter Jesus.  He was equally excited to point him out to others.  And so must we be.  We must first remember that we are not the light. We come to be the light only when we testify to the light.

- The Servant

 

Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11

Psalm 85:9-14

2 Peter 3:8-14

Mark 1:1-8

 

“Kindness and truth shall meet.  Justice and peace shall kiss.” Psalm 85:10

 

Before you know it New Year’s will be here, and we all know what that means.  Time for New Year’s resolutions!!!  And a wry grin crosses our faces because we know that the average life span of a New Year’s resolution rivals that of a common housefly – about 28 days!

 

But as Christians we have something even more meaningful – and more sustainable – than New Year’s resolutions.  We have ADVENT.  Advent is a time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord at Christmas, and to prepare to receive and absorb his words and teachings, which, in turn, prepare us for his suffering and death which absolves us of our earthly sins, and to further prepare for his resurrection which gives us eternal life, and to spend the 50 days after Easter preparing to live out the life that He calls us to.  28 day lifespan?  Hardly.

 

You see, that’s the tremendous difference.  The New Year’s resolutions are ephemeral, largely because we rely on ourselves.  In the weakness of our humanity the resolutions easily fall by the wayside.  However, the “preparation” that we are called to as Christians at Advent is sustainable because we rely on God, and the preparation is not for one day, but lasts through all of the liturgical year.

 

First and foremost in Advent we are called to repent.  But it doesn’t end with John the Baptist’s call at this time of the year.  Before you know it, it will be Ash Wednesday, and again we will be called to repent.  With ashes upon our foreheads and God’s mercy in our hearts we will, again, enter a season of prayer, introspection, and charity.   Again and again – during the Triduum, during the Easter season,  and beyond, we place ourselves in God’s hands so that we will be transformed by God’s power, not our own.

 

But each journey, they say, begins with one step.  And Advent gives us the opportunity to take those first steps.  And although we must always be watchful (for we do not know the day nor the time when the Lord will come) we are reminded today that “The Lord … is patient with you.” (2 Peter 3:9)  I might not get it right the first time around, but I’ve got EVERY day to start anew.  That is a promise from God.  And THAT is what makes the “resolutions” of Advent sustainable.

 

Perhaps the best preparation for me as I begin this journey – as I begin EACH DAY – is to remember and pray these words: 

Kindness and truth. 

Justice and peace.

 

“Call Me Ishmael”

 

Jesus Will Last.

    In this weeks Gospel – Mark 13:33-37 Jesus speaks to his disciples about staying awake. He speaks about being vigilant. This was his way of preparing the disciples for his return.   Today this message is just as relevant. I believe we are called to  stay awake and keep our eyes wide open in a world where there is so much darkness. 

     As a believer of Christ we have to make a decision everyday.  We decide who we are going  to be in this world.  We decide what kind of servant the world gets to see. Are we going to follow the teachings of Christ and reject sin? Are we going to positively impact the people we interact with today? Or will we  fall victim to the negative energy of the world? As Christians Jesus has called us to be awake.  We are called to watch.  We are called to pray. To me that means we are to see the world for what it is but, don’t be of this world.  We as Christians can watch what the world does and most certainly pray about it. Most of us watching the news or reading the blogs can see that the world is and has been in a very dark place.  A place that we as Christians must stay awake in.  We can’t get lazy with our  religious work.  We can’t allow ourselves to get comfortable. That’s how you fall for into the trap.  The trap I speak of is  the trap of thinking  that you don’t need a relationship with God anymore.  

        When Jesus spoke to his disciples he was preparing them for a life that needed them to be very much plugged in to their faith. They had to watch Jesus  suffer and die. Then they were told to Pray.  Don’t we all have to follow the same instructions? Don’t we all have  a choice to watch this world descend into chaos without participating in it. We don’t have to be a part of the chaos. We can  follow Jesus’s advice and watch and pray. 

    

    The prayer portion of Jesus’s message is very straightforward to me.  There is really nothing more important for you than your prayer life.  That is the time we make to be with the almighty. That is how we communicate  our needs, concerns, wins and losses with  the lord. That is how we build a relationship with the Lord.  What else matters more than that?  What else is more important than the time we make for the lord. What I have found  in life is that good times will not last. Bad times will not last.  But Jesus will last. Jesus will be there always.   With this gospel we are reminded to stay vigilant and steadfast in our prayers  as we watch the world slowly slip into darkness.  Jesus will Last.